Wegmans is open in our area now

My wife had been counting down the days until Wegmans opened in town, and the time has come. I grew up with Wegmans in upstate NY so we had the chance to shop there when we visited my parents. The new Wegmans just blows away any experience I had with it growing up. It’s insane what we can buy there now.

More options for grocery shopping is a Very Good Thing. Ukrop’s has been wonderful, and they’ve treated us very well, but the selection and price at Wegman’s is going to be hard to ignore. It still remains to be seen whether we can buy everything we need there for our daughter’s restricted diet (and my wife’s, frankly) but we can get a good bit of it.

A few fun facts about Wegmans:

Wegmans began in 1916 as the Rochester Fruit and Vegetable Company, in Rochester, NY.
Wegmans currently has 73 stores in five states.
Pricing at Wegmans have pretty much “done what they’ve said” even since the 1980s. If an item was “buy one, get one free” and we bought only one of them, we paid full price. The second one was free. This is different than “50% off,” but ends up being the same thing if we buy two of them.
Wegmans offers free or almost-free products with minimum purchases. For opening week in the Fredericksburg, VA, store, we could get free butter with a minimum $10 purchase and a Shopper’s Club card. This week it’s peanut butter. Good, useful items thrown in just for shopping a little there.
Wegmans is in the UPromise.com network according to its website. This means that we can register our Shopper’s Club card and get rebates for the participating name-brand items we buy. Just set it up, and forget it. Easy peasy.

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2 Responses to “Wegmans is open in our area now”
By Curtis on Jul 2, 2009 | Reply

Wegmans is a great store! I’ve lived in Upstate NY most of my life, and have had Wegmans nearby in almost every town that I’ve lived.

I worked at one Wegmans store during college until I had to have knee surgery — and even then I could’ve continued working there, but I chose instead to take up tutoring. Wegmans consistently ranks near the top of “best employer” lists.

I am and probably always will be a big fan.
By S. B. on Jul 14, 2009 | Reply

I love Wegmans, but I have to be careful there! Just like Costco, they have a trade up / trade down business model. The prices (and selection) on the basic stuff are great, but they also tempt you with a lot of high-end, high-margin stuff. I need to maintain discipline when I go there because of that.